I just need one website......

Thanks for the fantastic job on the app and the easy to follow install guide.
So, all I need to do now is work out how to use the app !

Wading through the manual, I realize I can do a lot of things.

All I need to do, however, is get a single website working .
It is probably also what the other 95% of "users" want to do too.
So, maybe it would be a smart idea for someone to write a few lines in your manual that would tell someone how to achive this.

In fact, as this is what I'm about to do, I will probably post the answer to my own post in a few days.

Before I get onto the website setup, I have some questions about the server setup.
BTW I have Ubuntu-704-feisty-32-minimal 2.6.20-16-server.
I followed all the instructions in the install guide plus the ubuntu 6.06 server setup guide on "howto forge".
So, my ISPCONFIG system is apparently installed and running smoothly.

1. Other than the ip address of my server, do I need to set these up ? I'm the only person needing to do admin, and it is more secure and less expensive if i just stick with an ip address rather than adding a domain name.
2. what is appropriate for the admin e-mail ?
I check my e-mail on another e-mail system so I guess i should specify that e-mail address because otherwise it is unlikely to get read.

On the tab:-
e-mail

what do \i have to set up here ?
What e-mail are we talking about ?
Is it some kind of a global setting page for all the e-mail that will be handled by all the hosted sites or what ?

on the tab

dns

what should i set in here ?
Default Ns1: server1.mydom.dom
I suppose if i am running BIND locally
Default Ns2: some other backup DNS server somewhere else.com
Admin Email: ?? not sure what goes in here as above
Default MX: ?? not sure here either as what website /MX account for what post are we talking about here as so far, I did not create any websites ????

OK after we've got through with the global server settings I need to do the following I think:-
SETTING UP A WEBSITE
********************
Click on "New Client"
Follow instructions as per section 2.1 "add a customer" in the reseller manual.
Click on "New Site"
Follow instructions as per section 3.1 "add a site" in the reseller manual.
Step: Assign title, folder and basic information.
* Title: This is the title under which the site will appear in the structure tree.
* Folder: Select the folder "Sites". Alternatively you have the possibility to create a new folder for the sites which you then can select here. Learn how to create folders in chapter II-4.1.1.
* Server: Select the server that will host the site.
* Hostname: Enter the hostname (e.g. www).
* Domain: Enter the domain of the site (e.g. mydomain.com).
* IP Address: Enter the IP address of the site.
* Create DNS: Click on "Create DNS" to create a DNS entry for the current site. After you have provided the other information for the site and have clicked on "Save" the DNS entry is created and can be edited by the administrator if necessary.
3. Step: Limit webspace, users and domains.

* Space MB: Enter the amount of MB that should be available to the site ("-1" means "Unlimited").
* Max. User: Enter the maximum number of users with email boxes that can be assigned to the site ("-1" means "Unlimited").
* Max. Domains: Enter the maximum number of co-domains that can be set up for the site ("-1" means "Unlimited").

4. Step: Activate site features.

* Shell Access: Allows the customer to use the linux shell. This is a security risk and should therefore only be granted in exceptional cases. Shell access includes FTP access.
* CGI Scripts: Allows the web server to execute cgi scripts in a certain directory (cgi-bin).
* PHP Scripts: Allows the web server to execute PHP scripts (file extensions .php, .php3, .php4).
* SSI: Activates Server Side Includes (SSI) (file extension .shtml).
* FTP Access: Allows the users assigned to a site to access the site or the users' directories via ftp.
* MySQL: Enables the creation of a database which is assigned to the site. If you supply a user name and password for the MySQL database in the tab "Other" the database will be created automatically.
* SSL Certificate: Enables the creation of an SSL certificate for the site. You still have to fill out the section "SSL" and select "Create Certificate" in that section to create the certificate. Learn more about applying for an SSL certificate in chapter III-2.4.1. If this field is not activated the tab "SSL" is not shown!
Please note: There can be only one SSL-capable site per IP address!
* Anonymous FTP: Activate this to create an Anonymous-FTP account for this site.
Please note: There can be only one Anonymous-FTP account per IP address!
* Anon. FTP MB: Please specify the storage space in MB that should be available for the Anonymous-FTP account. "-1" means "Unlimited". If "Anonymous FTP" is not activated this field is ignored.
* Apache Direktives (Optional): This field is available to you as a reseller only if the ISPConfig administrator has activated it for you. It offers you the opportunity to write additional Apache directives into the site's virtual host container manually. These directives will undergo a syntax check. If the syntax check gives back an error the directives will be commented out automatically so that the Apache web server cannot die.

Thge resat of the website has to be setup from within the "clients" manual, section 2.2.
Section 2.2
To set up an e-mail account for the website do the following:-
1.click on the title of the site created.
This brings up the "ISP Site" window.
2. click on the "user and e-mail" tab.
3. Click on "new"
4. add appropriate data for the new e-mail account.

questions:-
1. what is the name of the pop3 server and where is it ?
This would normally be set from the inside of the primary zone file in the MX records I believe.
2. what is the pop3 password ?
I assume the password entered for the user.
3. where is the smtp server and what is it called and how do you set this up anyway?
4. what is the password for sending mail with the smtp server ?
Frankly, this is my whole reason for going to all this trouble in the first place, as any fool can set up a website on apache, but password protected encripted mail setup is another kettle of fish IMHO....

clarification about why you have to give the server a domain name in "server settings

Dear Till,

Thanks very much for that clarifiaction about smtp server name, pop3 server name and passwords.
I suppose that the above is a consequence of what you set up in your primary zones file MX records. I will check it out and post my findings after i actually get through with doing a setup.

I have a question about the overall server settings however.

I only have one domain name to register, and one IP address.
So I MUST enter this during install of ISPCONFIG in order to correctly identify my computer when we get to the following section of the install proceedure :-

So, now I have my ISPConfig system installed, I create a new client to enable me to create a single website, then i create a new site (Note: not sure if i should create the new website with the client as the owner or not. Not sure which is the better thing to do.).

Problem: When I go to create my new site, I have to specify again host name and domain name as above i.e. www.xyz.de and the IP address as 192.168.0.1.

Question: Apart from the obvious problem of the fact that any member of the unsuspecting public surfing to port 81 of www.xyz.de getting the ispconfig login page, which it is clear i will just have to live with, is it possible for me to create a client website now using the host and domain name and ip address previously specified as belonging to my server ?

If it is not possible, then how do i go about doing it with just one domain name and ip address or do I necessarily have to have two domain names and two ip addresses to use this software?

I hope very much for your patience and kind help in explaining to me what is the best thing to do here.

OK, in the absence of complete information, I am proceeding by trial and error.
I deinstalled the current install, and started over again.
I tried leaving the hostname and domain name blank during setup.
You cannot do this as it won't let you go forwards in the install script.
I tried leaving the hostname blank and adding my ip address as the domain name.
This works, but it sets up an A record to www.yourip which is not want we want at all is it !!??

So I deinstalled again and will try installing again with different variables until I crack it......

Later, dudes.....

I swear I will write a decent setup howto for a fix ip address site after all this torture is over.

All I need to do, however, is get a single website working .
It is probably also what the other 95% of "users" want to do too.
So, maybe it would be a smart idea for someone to write a few lines in your manual that would tell someone how to achive this.

Click to expand...

Will the server in question only be serving up a single web site, and never provide services for a second domain or for other customers? If so, then I think that ISPConfig might actually not be what you want to use.

ISPConfig makes it easy to manage web and e-mail services for a great many customers and many domains. But if you are only interested in a single site within a single domain, ISPConfig would actually be overkill. It might be akin to swatting mosquitos with a 12 gauge shotgun

thanks for your reply.
I agree it is totally OTT for what I want to do.
But, I definitely need complete control of a mail server and a website that support encrypted mail transfers and also has a password for the pop3 and smtp usage.
I did try setting up one smtp/pop3 server with passwords in the past manually, but it did seem rather complicated and i never got it working right.

Plus, ISPConfig has a lot of useful ancilliary services pre-configured.
Like a spam filter, anti-virus and webalizer.
So if i install ISPConfig I will be loosing a lot of flexibility over my apache and bind install, but gaining a lot of time not having to go through all the setup on the mail server , spam filter, webalizer etc etc.

Also my site gets huge quantities of mail and quite a bit of traffic which i don't want to administer manually.

It might help to summarize what your situation. I know it would help me to properly understand the task at hand.

You have a static IP address, correct? You you have multiple IP addresses, or just one? And your goal is to provide e-mail (SMTP and POP/IMAP), web, and DNS services for a single domain. Does the domain for which you want to provide service currently have it's NS record set to your IP address(es)?

1. Other than the ip address of my server, do I need to set these up ? I'm the only person needing to do admin, and it is more secure and less expensive if i just stick with an ip address rather than adding a domain name.

Click to expand...

Not sure of this. Perhaps someone else can address this.

2. what is appropriate for the admin e-mail ?
I check my e-mail on another e-mail system so I guess i should specify that e-mail address because otherwise it is unlikely to get read.

Click to expand...

The address of any mailbox you are likely to read.

On the tab:-
e-mail

what do \i have to set up here ?
What e-mail are we talking about ?
Is it some kind of a global setting page for all the e-mail that will be handled by all the hosted sites or what ?

Click to expand...

This is where you set up global parameters to control the Postfix daemon that will handle all incoming e-mail.

on the tab

dns

what should i set in here ?
Default Ns1: server1.mydom.dom
I suppose if i am running BIND locally

Click to expand...

That sounds about right

Default Ns2: some other backup DNS server somewhere else.com

Click to expand...

That's another issue for someone better acquainted with ISPConfig. I don't know whether ISPConfig can handle being a master server, updting a remote slave.

Admin Email: ?? not sure what goes in here as above

Click to expand...

Same as the "Admin E-Mail" answer above - the address of a mailbox that you check regularly.

Default MX: ?? not sure here either as what website /MX account for what post are we talking about here as so far, I did not create any websites ????

Now I founfd i can ftp onto my website and transfer files across to create my website
the login for ftp BTW is as follows:-
address to loginto : my ip address
username: web1_info
password: XXXXXXXX
port: 21

The above is all fine and it looks like FINALLY i am getting somewheres.
HOWEVER I NOW RUN INTO THE FOLLOWING "GOTTCHA"
-I did not transfer my real domain name over to my new website yet as it is in use somewheres else.
-Therefore, to check that the website is really up, I type in my ip address in my browser BUT because I had to use the same ip address, host and domain names twice (Once in server settings and once to set up my clients website), I only can get to a page saying
"welcome, this IP address is shared. Please login to www.mysite.dom to see the website you are looking for."

My questions are:-

1. Is this normal ?
2. Can I get around the problem ?
I think I possibly can by using a terminal based web browser on my server like lynx and point it to 127.0.0.1 and see what I reach.

Any comments about resolving this technical difficulty would be most appreciated.

sorry i missed your previous post as we have now moved onto page two of this thread....
anyway to answer your questions:-

You have a static IP address, correct?
yes
You you have multiple IP addresses, or just one?
just one
And your goal is to provide e-mail (SMTP and POP/IMAP), web, and DNS services for a single domain.
yes
Does the domain for which you want to provide service currently have it's NS record set to your IP address(es)?
no because the domain is in use elsewhere. My idea was first set up everything on the new server website and the mail server as much as possible, then reset the dns listed at my domain name registrar to be the ones of my new server.

The above is all fine and it looks like FINALLY i am getting somewheres.
HOWEVER I NOW RUN INTO THE FOLLOWING "GOTTCHA"
-I did not transfer my real domain name over to my new website yet as it is in use somewheres else.
-Therefore, to check that the website is really up, I type in my ip address in my browser BUT because I had to use the same ip address, host and domain names twice (Once in server settings and once to set up my clients website), I only can get to a page saying
"welcome, this IP address is shared. Please login to www.mysite.dom to see the website you are looking for."

My questions are:-

1. Is this normal ?
2. Can I get around the problem ?
I think I possibly can by using a terminal based web browser on my server like lynx and point it to 127.0.0.1 and see what I reach.

Any comments about resolving this technical difficulty would be most appreciated.

Click to expand...

Yep, that behavior is normal. Here's how you can get around that problem for testing:

If you are running a real OS (Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, OS X, etc) edit your /etc/hosts file. Specifically, on the line that starts with your IP address, add "yourdomain.com" and "www.yourdomain.com". If you're stuck with running a video-game OS (a flavor of Windows), then do the same in /windows/system/drivers/etc/hosts (or something like that - I can never remember exactly where the file is, as I never use Wintendo any more).

That way when you attempt to surf to yourdomain.com or www.yourdomain.com, your machine will resolve the address out of your local hosts file instead of via DNS. This assumes, of course, that your nsswitch.conf file is set up to prefer "files" over other methods.

I only can get to a page saying
"welcome, this IP address is shared. Please login to www.mysite.dom to see the website you are looking for."

My questions are:-

1. Is this normal ?
2. Can I get around the problem ?

Click to expand...

The page tells you you have ISPConfig set up. It is the index.html splash page for people who have a domain DNS pointing at your IP, but no domain actually set up in there yet. This splash page default changes when the domain is set up, but has no pages of its own yet. So the answer to 1 is "Yes".

2. You change it by designing a new splash page and uploading it. In Apache2 on a Debian type distro, that's /var/www/apache2-default/ - I have yet to work out where to put it for a domain which is configured but no pages yet.

Well my website is now reachable.
But, I have various problems with my DNS configuration as follows:-

1. My ISP tells me that if I register a .com domain name server as my primary
name server, they are not allowed to register it as they are in germany for technical reasons.

2. This is all well and good, but what I need to know is , for a single website, running ISPCONFIG , do I have to specify my local machine as being the primary DNS server or not ?
I suspect not.

If this is the case, then I will just use my ISP's DNS servers rather than specifying my own.

NB: I do need to run a mail server so I am not sure where this leaves me WRT my MX records and how I should set up my mail server if my local macine is not my primary name server.

Click to expand...

No, you don't need to have your domain's NS records pointing at ISPConfig. You can configure external name servers to point to your ISPConfig machine's IP address

Mail service and DNS service don't have to run on the same machine. Just be sure to properly configure an MX record on whichever server does run run your DNS, and be sure that it points to your ISPConfig machine. Then make sure that /etc/postfix/local-host-names does include your domain (inserted by ISPConfig) and your machine's local hostname (maybe inserted by ISPConfig, maybe inserted by you below the "MAKE MANUAL CHANGES BELOW THIS LINE" line.